Handbid Support - Much Better Than a Side Salad

A crazy title I know, but it came to me quite honestly after interfacing with clients from all over the world. This is one of the best parts of my job in fact, and, every now and then, I get a question that gets me thinking.

What
The question I recently received from a client was this:

Can I substitute your ticketing option for OnSite Support?

(Meaning: I don't need your ticketing system, which is included in the price model I want to purchase, so -- instead -- can I have someone from your company come to my event to help out for the night?)

It was an honest question, and I knew that I would need to spend some time thinking about how to answer it. Also, major creds to this client for their creativity.

So in thinking about this, my mind really stuck on the notion of "substitute”. The word "substitution” conjured up the concept of making substitutions at a restaurant, you know, can I have the BLT, but with cucumbers instead of tomatoes? (You mean, a "BLC”?) Or, more seriously, can I substitute a side salad for the fries?  A part of me wanted to explain that ticketing is not like fries and OnSite Support is not like a side salad. One is not equal to another here at Handbid. After all, both of these have different costs for the restaurant to provide and offer different value to the customer.

But, then I thought about the situations where this may not be the case. Perhaps in some circumstances the fries and the salad have the same value and cost? Maybe the restaurant can't argue for an upcharge on the salad. In those cases, an "even-steven” trade could make sense. SO what does that have to do with auctions? Well let me explain…

For some mobile bidding solutions, the cost of ticketing may be similar to OnSite Support, since some of our competitors are known to hire temp staff from agencies, race them through online training, and outfit them with a company shirt when they show up to the event.

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Handbid's Onsite staff for your fundraising event

At Handbid, we don't do that.

• At Handbid, we send people to your events who understand auctions, the flow of a fundraising event, and most importantly, our software. They are team players. They pay attention to detail. They are kind, courteous, professional, and - as a result - the fees for OnSite Staffing are a little more than other options. In addition, we consider it our responsibility to assess what you actually need and not sell you more or less than that. So when a prospect tells us, "yes, but company X plans to bring 12 people to the event and you are suggesting 3-4”, you can bet our next question will be "why do you feel you need 12 people? What kind of software are you purchasing that would require 12 people to run it?” You may want 12 people, but do all of them need to be staff brought in by the mobile bidding company? Do you have staff or volunteers that can be trained that night to manage check-in and bidding support without the high price tag? We hope so (and we think so…).

Back to our model. How many people do you REALLY need OnSite? The answer to this question accurately requires MORE information to answer precisely:

• What are the components of your event? (i.e. silent, live, paddle, raffle, wine wall)
• How many guests are you expecting?
• How many volunteers do you have access to for the night of your event?
• How will you run registration? Is everyone checking in or are you doing self-registration for your auction?
• What % of your guests are likely to read your steady stream of communication and pre-register, rendering themselves all set and ready to bid before they even get there?
• What role do you want to play the night of the event? (i.e. do you need to be mingling with donors or would you enjoy being the one in charge of the software?)
• Would you consider having 1-2 people from your Organization serve as the Handbid Lead and attend a Handbid training with our Client Services Team (instead of OnSite Support)?

Fun Fact: 75% of all Handbid auctions are run without us OnSite.

Yes. It's true, and we are proud of the fact that we have helped 75% of our customers save a portion of the event proceeds for a better purpose. We'd be happy to connect you with these clients! They are everywhere! And, they are just thrilled that they don't have to pay someone to run their events & they are empowered to keep learning more about our software!

Don't get us wrong! We will go to your event. We are happy to do so. We just want to make sure it is necessary first. So, let's chat about it.

The moral of the story: At Handbid, the only substitution for OnSite Support is your confidence in yourself to use the software! Don't succumb to fear! You can do it, we can help...So, let's get you there!